Safety concerns have been raised after a mystery vandal has been savagely hacking at historic trees in a Palmers Green park.

Several trees in Tatem Park have lost branches and been cut back without explanation over the past month.

Marc Ellul, chairman of Friends of Tatem and Weir Hall Parks in Palmers Green, discovered the problem and believes it poses problems for the safety of park goers.

He said: “In late February and earlier this month we found that a few of our trees had been hacked at. We had no idea who had been doing this and we are very concerned that this person might come back to wreak more havoc.”

Amongst the damaged trees were 60-year-old magnolias which have had to be heavily cut back, much to the disappointment of Mr Ellul.

He added: “This was a blow to the park and we are all devastated because the trees were a symbol of the park and have had to be cut back to stumps.

“Some branches have been cut completely off but a lot of them have been left dangling on the tree and could fall at any moment, which causes a great risk to everybody who walks in the park.

“For all we know this person could be leaving those branches there deliberately so they fall on top of people.”

The group members have now been working with park police and Enfield Borough Council to put up signs, imploring people to give any information they have about the incident.

Mr Ellul claims that this has been happening in other parks across the borough.

Councillor Chris Bond said: “We are aware of these wanton acts of mindless vandalism and we are working with our parks police to catch the idiots responsible.

“We’d urge park users to be vigilant and report any suspicious behaviour to the police as a matter of urgency so we can track down and punish the people responsible.”

Comments (1)

Similar wanton events have previously occurred in Broomfield Park. In this case the damage appears to be to mature trees. Groups who sponsor tree planting of saplings should NEVER have photographs published as the publicity often attracts the vandals

Similar wanton events have previously occurred in Broomfield Park. In this case the damage appears to be to mature trees. Groups who sponsor tree planting of saplings should NEVER have photographs published as the publicity often attracts the vandalsdons24pelliparclose